AGM-69 SRAM
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The Boeing AGM-69 SRAM (Short-range attack missile) was a nuclear air-to-surface missile designed to replace the older AGM-28 Hound Dog stand-off missile.
The requirement for the weapon was issued by the Strategic Air Command of the USAF in 1964, and the resultant AGM-69A SRAM entered service in 1972 It was carried by the B-52, the FB-111A, and, for a very short period starting in 1986, the B-1Bs based at at Dyess AFB in Texas.
SRAM was 176 in (4.47 m) long with its tail fairing in place, with a diameter of 17.6 in (447 mm). Its launch weight was 2,230 lb (1,010 kg). It was propelled by a single Lockheed SR75-LP-1 two-pulse, solid-fueled rocket engine to a maximum speed of about Mach 3 (2,280 mph or 3,648 km/h at sea level). Its range was about 100 miles (160 km), depending on flight profile. It had an inertial navigation system to guide it to its target, giving a CEP (circular error probability) of about 1,400 ft (430 m). The SRAM used a single W69 nuclear warhead with a nominal yield of 200 kilotons.
SRAM could be carried individually or on an eight-round rotary launcher mounted in the weapons bay of a B-52 or B-1B. The B-52 was capable of carrying eight internally and 12 on its underwing pylons; the B-1B could carry eight internally and 14 externally; the FB-111A could carry two internally and four underwing.
About 1,500 missiles were built at a cost of about $592,000 each by the time production ended in 1975.
An upgraded AGM-69B was proposed in the late 1970s, with an upgraded motor to be built by Thiokol and a W80 warhead, but it was cancelled (along with the B-1A) in 1978. Various plans for alternative guidance schemes, including an anti-radar seeker for use against air defense installations and even a possible air-to-air missile version, came to nothing.
A new weapon, the AGM-131 SRAM II, began development in 1981, intended to arm the resurrected B-1B, but it was cancelled in 1991 by then president George Bush along with most of the U.S. Strategic Modernization effort (including PeaceKeeper Mobile (Rail) Garrison, Small ICBM and Minuteman III modernization) in an effort by the U.S. to ease nuclear pressure with the disintegrating Soviet Union.
The AGM-69A was finally retired in June 1990 over growing concerns about the safety of its warhead. With the end of the Cold War it is unlikely to be replaced in the immediate future.
Related links
Air University and the 42nd Air Base Wing (http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/systems/dvic394.htm) Strategic Air Command (http://www.strategic-air-command.com/missiles/Aircraft-Launched_Missiles/agm-69_SRAM_missile.htm)